The
Confederate Territory of Arizona was beset by numerous threats, with Yankee
forces to the north, Mexican bandits to the south, and Apache marauders
everywhere in between. To meet these threats, Governor John Robert Baylor
immediately mustered into Confederate service the various local militia
companies which existed within the Territory. The best of these were the Arizona
Guards of Pinos Altos (a town on the Mimbres River near present-day Deming, New
Mexico), commanded by Captain Thomas Mastin, and the Arizona Rangers of La
Mesilla (not to be confused with Company A, Baylor's Regiment of Arizona
Rangers, who form the main subject of this article), commanded by Captain George
Frazier.1

These
local militia units proved a valuable addition to the Confederate forces
defending Arizona, but Governor Baylor recognized the need to raise yet more
troops for its defense. Taking a page from the history of his native State,
Baylor decided to raise a regiment of Rangers for frontier defense. Like the
famous Texas Rangers with which he was familiar, this regiment of Arizona
Rangers would consist of several companies of cavalry which would patrol and
defend the frontier areas of Confederate Arizona from the various threats the
Territory faced. The plan never came to fruition, however, and only one of these
companies was ever raised. This was, of course, Company A.2

Captain Sherod Hunter, 1st Commander of Company A

Governor
Baylor commissioned Sherod Hunter, a highly-regarded junior officer in Captain
George Frazierís company, as a Captain and charged him with the recruitment of
the first company. The MESILLA TIMES of January 8, 1862 had the following
to say of this: "We are pleased to hear that Capt. Hunter is being very
successful in his efforts towards organizing his Company...We do not know of a
single officer under whom we would rather serve, nor one who has more compleetly
(sic) the confidence and respect of his men, than he has of those of Capt.
Frazer's Co., in which he was recently First Lieutenant."3

Members of Company A as they most likely appeared during the
Arizona Campaign

The
new company was composed of (to quote the MESILLA TIMES) "picked men,
inured to the hardships of frontier life, and conversant with all its
details."4 They were armed with six-shooter revolvers and Model 1847
smoothbore Dragoon musketoons, probably taken from the Federal garrison of Fort
Fillmore when that post was surrendered to the Confederates in August 1861.5 The
company was enlisted "for three years, or during the war."6 Although
the MESILLA TIMES called them the "crack company of the service," they
were certainly no "spit and polish" outfit. Tucson residents later
observed that Hunter's men rarely drilled while in Tucson, (a possible
indication of their great proficiency in the use of their weapons, which would
be demonstrated later at Picacho Pass), and that they "slept where they
pleased."7 It is unlikely that they were issued with any Confederate
uniform during this campaign, but instead wore a conglomeration of civilian
clothing and items of Union clothing from the stocks captured at Fort Fillmore.8

What
was the name carried by Sherod Hunter's command? Several names have been used by
various historians, such as "Arizona Volunteers," "Arizona
Guards," and "Arizona Rangers." The name "Arizona
Volunteers" probably derives from Confederate muster rolls, where the unit
is sometimes referred to as "Independent Arizona Volunteers." However,
this would seem to be more a description of the type of troops rather than the
actual name of the unit. The "Arizona Guards" were a completely
different company, and are obviously confused by some historians with Hunter's
command (Certain members of Hunter's unit transferred into it from the Arizona
Guards, and this is possibly the source of the confusion between the two units).
The real clue to the name comes from Governor John R. Baylor, who stated in late
1862 (in a letter to Brigadier General Paul O. Hebert) that he had intended to
create "a Regiment of Rangers," and that Hunter's company had been
organized as the first Company of that Regiment.9 This is supported
by Hunter himself, who seems to have called it in official documents
"Company A, Baylorís Regiment," or sometimes simply "Company
A."10 Based on these facts, the proper name of the Company would
most likely have been Company A, Baylorís Regiment of Arizona Rangers.

Henry
Connelly, Governor

United
States Territory of New Mexico

Despite
being labeled as such by nearly every historian who has written of the
Confederate campaign in Arizona, the men of Hunter's command were for the most
part not Texans, but rather residents of the Confederate Territory of Arizona.
The erroneous identification of Hunter's men as "Texans" may stem from
the fact that the company was attached to the Second Texas Mounted Rifles.
However, they were never an organic part of that regiment, and in Confederate
records are always listed as "Independent Arizona Volunteers, attached to
the Second Texas Cavalry." And Boyd Finch, a historian who is probably the
single most knowledgeable expert on the history of Sherod Hunter and his
command, offers another explanation...Unionist propaganda. Among the native
Mexican population of the United States Territory of New Mexico there was a deep
suspicion and distrust of Texans, going back many years. Wishing to rally these
people to the Union cause, the Unionist authorities, especially Governor Henry
Connelly, sought to capitalize on this distrust by labeling all Confederates as
"Texans."11 Unfortunately, like many other lies about the
Confederacy and Confederates told by Unionists during and after the War, this
label has survived the years intact, without even much questioning by
historians.

The
number of men in Hunter's command is a source of argument among historians.
Estimates range from as low as 5412 to as high as 200.13
Possibly the most reliable estimate was given by Hiram Stephens, a Tucson
resident who traveled from Mesilla to Tucson with Hunter's command. Stephens
stated, in an affidavit made on October 5, 1862, that Hunter's command never
contained more than 105 men.14. We know from other sources that 30 of
these were not actually of Hunter's company (30 of these were a detachment from
Captain Thomas Jefferson Helm's Arizona Guards, sent to serve as an escort for
Colonel James Reily. Reily was traveling with Hunterís company to Tucson as a
stop on his way to his real destination...Hermosillo, the capital of the Mexican
state of Sonora, where he was being sent to open diplomatic relations with the
Mexican Governor).15 If Stephens was accurate in his count, and there
is little reason to believe otherwise, then Hunter's Company consisted of about
75 men.

On
January 25, 1862, Company A, Baylor's Regiment of Arizona Rangers was mustered
into the Confederate service at Dona Ana (a town located just north of
present-day Las Cruces, New Mexico).16 On February 10, 1862 Company A
was ordered to occupy Tucson, the most important town in the western portion of
the Confederate Territory of Arizona.17 Tucson's adobe houses and
3,000 inhabitants were strategically located astride the only road leading east
from California toward the Confederate enclave in the Mesilla Valley, and thus
was the ideal spot to place an advanced Confederate outpost to watch for the
approach of invading Yankees from California. By taking possession of Tucson,
The Confederates would also be making good on their claim to possession of
Western Arizona, which up to now had existed only on paper.18

Members of Company A ride away from Picacho pass, April 15,
1862

Company
A arrived in Tucson on February 27, 1862, and on March 1, they held a ceremony
in which they raised the Stars and Bars over the town plaza.19 Thus
began the most significant campaign in the Company's career as a Confederate
Army unit. Company A would occupy Tucson until May 14, 1862, when the approach
of a 2,000-man Union force under the command of Colonel James Henry Carleton,
the so-called "California Column," forced them to retreat back to the
Mesilla Valley. The invasion of Arizona by this Union force would have come much
sooner save for the brilliant hit-and-run tactics employed by Captain Hunter and
Company A. Elements of Company A managed to capture, without firing a shot, an
advanced detachment of the 1st California Cavalry on March 18, 1862, and clashed
with Union forces twice, at Stanwix Station (March 30, 1862, generally
considered to be the westernmost skirmish of the War Between the States) and
Picacho Pass (April 15, 1862, generally considered to be the westernmost battle
of the war). The tiny Confederate force destroyed reserves of hay stored along
the route from California to Tucson, and confiscated 1,500 sacks of wheat stored
forthe Union forces at the villages of the Pima Indians (on the Gila River,
about 30 miles south of present-day Phoenix, Arizona, forcing the Yankees to
halt at the villages while new supplies were gathered. The net effect of Company
A's activities was to delay the advance of the California Column for over a
month, which probably saved the Confederate Army of New Mexico (the main
Confederate force in Arizona and New Mexico, which had advanced northward along
the Rio Grande to capture Albuquerque and Santa Fe before being defeated at the
Battle of Glorietta Pass in March 1862 and forced to retreat back to Mesilla)
from being intercepted and destroyed by the California Column as it retreated
through the mountains back to the Mesilla Valley during April 1862.20

Surprisingly,
despite the tremendous superiority of force arrayed against it, Company A lost
only three men (all captured--none killed or wounded) during its campaign
against the California Column...Sergeant Henry Holmes and Privates William Dwyer
and John Hill were captured by the Unionists at the Battle of Picacho Pass on
April 15, 1862. The Confederates inflicted losses of three killed, four wounded,
and ten captured on the Union forces during the campaign.21 The
Company did not get away completely unscathed, however. On May 5, 1862 the
Confederates lost four men killed (Sergeant Sam Ford, a private named John
Donaldson and another known only as Richardo, and one other whose name is lost
to history) as well as the loss of 25 horses and 30 mules as a result of an
Apache attack on a Confederate foraging expedition in the vicinity of the
abandoned Butterfield Overland Stagecoach Station at Dragoon Springs (about 16
miles east of present-day Benson, Arizona). On May 9, 1862, however, they would
have their revenge...a expedition sent out to recover the stolen livestock
surprised the Apaches near Dragoon Springs and killed five of them without loss
to themselves.22

Governor
John R. Baylor

Confederate
Territory of Arizona

In the
wake of the battle at Picacho Pass Captain Hunter had written to Governor
Baylor, requesting a reinforcement of at least 250 men, with which he felt he
could hold Tucson for the Confederacy.23 When no reinforcements were
forthcoming, Hunter decided to evacuate Tucson. Company A left Tucson on May 14,
leaving behind a small detachment under the command of Lt. James Henry Tevis to
watch for the approach of Union forces from the north.24 Unknown to
the Confederates, on that same day, the Union California Column finally left its
bivouac at the Pima Villages for its final advance on Tucson.25 Lt.
Tevis and his detachment were surprised and almost captured when the Yankee
cavalry charged into town on May 20. Recalling the incident years later, Tevis
candidly described his reaction to the entry of the Union troops: "They got
too close for my health and I left." Tevis and his men managed to escape
and rejoin the main body of Company A a few days later.26

Company
A arrived back in La Mesilla on May 27, 1862.27 Once there it was
combined with the Arizona Guards (under the command of Captain Thomas Helm) and
the Arizona Rangers of Mesilla (under the command of Captain Granville Henderson
Oury) to form a battalion of Arizona cavalry under the command of Lt. Colonel
Philemon T. Herbert.28 The said battalion was part of a detachment
left behind, under the command of Colonel William Steele, to watch for the
approach of Union forces from the north and west as the bulk of the Confederate
Army of New Mexico retreated to safety in San Antonio, Texas. During this period
Company A took part in foraging activities in the countryside surrounding La
Mesilla, and on July 1, 1862 it clashed with a band of native Mexican guerillas
(none of the Confederates were killed or wounded, but several lost their horses
and equipment as a result of the engagement). A few days later, on July 7, the
approach of Union forces forced the Confederates to abandon the Mesilla Valley,
and the Confederate Territory of Arizona, forever.29

Company
A was among the last of the Confederate units to leave Arizona...indeed, James
H. Tevis would claim (after the war) that Company A was THE last Confederate
unit to leave and formed the reargaurd for the Confederate Army.30 It
finally arrived in San Antonio in late July, 1862, with sixty-three men fit for
duty (Company A, unlike the other Arizona companies which formed Herbert's
Battalion of Arizona Cavalry, seems not to have suffered from significant rates
of desertion as the unit prepared to leave Arizona).31 The arrival of
Company A and the rest of Herbert's Battalion in San Antonio would mark the
beginning of a period of exile for the Arizona troops. But exile would not mean
inactivity, and the Arizona men would see much action over the next three years.

Henry Hopkins Sibley

Shortly
after their arrival in San Antonio, Herbertís Battalion was formally assigned
to the "Sibley Brigade," as the former the Army of New Mexico was now
called.32 Their drunken and thoroughly discredited commander,
Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley, was not with them, however...shortly
after his arrival in San Antonio he was called to Richmond to explain his
conduct during the failed campaign in New Mexico. He would not return until
December, 1862, and in the interim, the Brigade was commanded by Colonel Thomas
Green.33

When
Company A arrived in San Antonio they found a city in chaos. News of the loss of
Arizona and the arrival of the Union California Column on the Rio Grande had
preceded them into the city, and there was widespread fear that the Yankees
would follow up their conquest of Confederate Arizona with an invasion of Texas.
As it turned out, however, such fears proved illusory. The Unionists contented
themselves with the occupation of El Paso and some other isolated settlements in
the extreme west of Texas, and then settled down to consolidate their rule in
Arizona (and mete out punishment to the local secessionists who had not
retreated with the Confederate Army of New Mexico to the safety of Texas).34

Thus,
Herbert's Battalion was afforded a period of several months to rest and refit.
Although no record has survived to document it, it was during this time that the
Arizona troops would likely have received their first issue of actual
Confederate uniform. These were most likely locally made, undyed cotton/wool
jeancloth garments made at the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville, Texas,
which were being issued to most units in the far west during this time period.35

Company
A received not only new uniforms during this time period, but a new commanding
officer. On October 2, 1862, Sherod Hunter resigned his commission as Captain of
Company A to accept the post of Major in Colonel George Wythe Baylor's Regiment
of Texas-Arizona Cavalry, also known as the Second Cavalry Regiment, Arizona
Brigade. First Lieutenant Robert L. Swope, like Hunter a native of Tennessee who
had migrated to Arizona in the 1850s, was promoted to Captain and assumed
command of Company A on October 3.36

Tom Green

Other
than the issue of uniforms and the change of commanders, nothing else of note
happened to the men of the Sibley Brigade until December of 1862. At the end of
that month, Union warships sailed into the harbor of Galveston, Texas and landed
a small invasion force which took control of the town itself. The men of the
Sibley Brigade had been recently placed under the command of Colonel Thomas
Green (General Sibley, suffering from depression and lapsing farther into
alcoholism after the disastrous outcome of his invasion of New Mexico, still
retained nominal command of the brigade, for the time being). Colonel Green was
ordered by Major General John Bankhead Magruder, in command of the Department of
Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, to advance from San Antonio and to recapture the
important port city. On January 1, 1863, aided by two converted steamers
(nicknamed "cottonclads" after the bales of cotton piles on their
decks so as to give protection to the Confederate riflemen posted there), Green
and his men atacked the Union forces and routed them, capturing three companies
of Union infantry in the process.37

However,
it seems that Company A was not at Galveston with the rest of the Sibley
Brigade. On December 2, 1862, General Henry Hopkins Sibley was ordered to New
Iberia, Louisiana, there to take over, once again, command of the Brigade. Upon
his December 25 arrival at Opelousas, La., enroute for New Iberia, he found that
most of the Brigade had been ordered to Galveston by General Magruder. However,
he reported that Herbertís Battalion was there in Louisiana with him, and had
been "actively and usefully employed" in scouting "in the
vicinity of Plaquemine and the Mississippi River."38

Richard
Taylor

After
their success at Galveston, the rest of the Sibley Brigade was ordered into
Louisiana, rejoining their comrades of Herbertís Battaltion and General
Sibley. The Brigade was then assigned to an army under General Richard Taylor
which was operating in support of the Confederate defenders of Vicksburg and
Port Hudson. It was hoped that Confederate forces operating on the west bank of
the Mississippi might draw Union forces away from Vicksburg, allowing other
Confederate forces gathering at Jackson, Mississippi under General Joseph E.
Johnston to relieve the besieged city Unfortunately for the Confederacy, such
was not to be the case, and Vicksburg would surrender on July 4, 1863. But
successful or not, this attempt to succor the Confederacyís last bastions on
the Mississippi River would soon place the men of the Sibley Brigade in combat
during the Bayou Teche Campaign.39

James Henry
Tevis, third and final
commander of Company A

Captain
Robert L. Swope would not lead Company A during the Teche Campaign. In February
1863, shortly after the arrival of the Sibley Brigade in Louisiana, Swope
resigned as commander of Company A, apparently as a result of an ongoing feud
with the commander of the Arizona Battalion, Lt. Colonel Philemon T. Herbert.
First Lieutenant James Henry Tevis was placed in command, although he was
apparently not promoted to the rank of Captain at this time.40

In
April 1863, the Sibley Brigade (including Herbertís Arizona Battalion) was
among the men with which General Taylor confronted the Yankee army under General
Nathaniel Banks at Fort Bisland, on the Bayou Teche. The Battle of Fort Bisland
was a defeat for the Confederates, and General Taylor ordered a retreat. General
Sibley, in command of the rear guard, nearly lost his command at Franklin,
Louisiana, when he (possibly under the influence of alcohol) ordered the last
bridge across the Bayou Teche burned before his men had made their escape.
Seeing the bridge in flames behind them, they quickly disengaged from the enemy
and fled, the last of them crossing just as the bridge was fully engulfed in
flames. Sibley was soon afterward court-martialed for this and other offenses,
and although he was not convicted, he was removed from command of the Brigade.
The popular Colonel Thomas Green, who had led the brigade with distinction in
earlier campaigns, was promoted to Brigadier General and placed in command of the
Brigade.41

The
many skirmishes which took place as Taylorís army retreated before the
advancing Union army of General Nathaniel Banks during April and May of 1863
gradually sapped the strength of Herbert's Battalion of Arizona Cavalry (whose
three companies' combined strength had numbered no more than 180 men when the
Battalion was formed in July 1862). In just one such fight, near New Iberia,
Louisiana, Company A suffered the loss of more than 15 men who were (according
to a postwar report by James Henry Tevis) "cut down by sabres."42
By the end of May 1863 the Battalion had been reduced to the point where it was
no longer an effective organization, and it was broken up. Company A (the former
Company A, Baylor's Regiment of Arizona Rangers) still had enough men to
continue as a viable company, and was kept in being as an independent Arizona
Scout company, attached to the Green's Brigade. The other two companies of the
Battalion (the former Arizona Guards of Pinos Altos and Arizona Rangers of
Mesilla) were disbanded at this time, and the men within them were consolidated
with Company A.43

The
men of Company A would now be re-united with their former commander, Sherod
Hunter. As mentioned earlier, Hunter had taken a commission as Major in the
Second Texas-Arizona Cavalry Regiment of the Arizona Brigade. The Arizona
Brigade was broken up in May 1863, and the Second and Third Texas-Arizona
Cavalry Regiments were assigned to Green's Texas Cavalry Brigade.44
As it happened, they arrived in Louisiana just as Herbert's Battalion was being
broken up. Although there is no direct proof of it, Captain Tevis and the
Arizona Scouts may have been attached at this time to the Second Texas-Arizona
Cavalry Regiment.45

The
surrender of Vicksburg (and the lesser Confederate bastion at Port Hudson,
Louisiana) in July 1863 led to the retreat of Green's Brigade to the region of
Shreveport, Louisiana. In November 1863, the Arizona Scouts fought with Green's
Brigade as they resisted a Union invasion up the Bayou Teche. In early December
1863 the brigade was recalled to Texas, in response to a threatened assault on
Galveston by a Union naval force (which assault never materialized).46

James Patrick Major

In
late December of 1863, while still encamped near Galveston, the Second and Third
Texas-Arizona Cavalry Regiments were re-assigned to the Texas Cavalry Brigade
commanded by Brigadier General James Patrick Major.47 It would seem
that the Arizona Scouts went with them, as in February 1864 they were among the
companies detached from various regiments (Baylorís, Chisumís, Crumpís,
and Madisonís) of Major's Brigade to form a Scouting Battalion under the
command of Major William Saufley. Captain Tevisís Arizona Scout Company became
Company E of the Battalion.48 Whether Saufley's Scouting Battalion
ever was more than a paper organization, however, is uncertain, and during
January and February 1864 it is known that the company operated as part of a
command under Colonel James Duff (33rd Texas Cavalry) near Indianola, Texas.49

On
March 5, 1864, James P. Major's Texas Cavalry Brigade was ordered back to
Louisiana to oppose the invasion then proceeding up the Red River by a combined
Union army and naval force under Major General Nathaniel Banks. During this
campaign, Major's Brigade was combined with two other cavalry Brigades (Green's
Brigade, now commanded by Colonel Arthur P. Bagby, and a brigade of Louisiana
regiments) to form a Cavalry Division under the command of now-Major General Tom
Green. Captain Tevis and the Arizona Scouts fought as part of Major's Brigade
during this campaign (whether as part of Saufleyís Battalion or attached to
the Second Texas-Arizona Cavalry or to Duffís Regiment is unknown),
participating in the major battles at Wilson's Farm (April 7, 1864), Mansfield
(April 8, 1864) and Pleasant Hill (April 9, 1864), as well as numerous other
skirmishes throughout the rest of the campaign. In one notable instance, on May
1, 1864 near Wilsonís Landing on the Red River, "after an exciting chase
of 2 miles" the Arizona Scouts under Lt. John M. Smith assisted in the
capture of a Union transport, the U.S.S. Emma. Her crew was made
prisoner, and the vessel itself was burned. Captain Tevis had apparently been
wounded (possibly at Mansfield) earlier in the campaign, and the Arizona Scouts
served under the command of First Lieutenant John M. Smith for the rest of the
campaign.50

John A. Wharton

After
the retreat of the Union forces and the abandonment of their Red River invasion,
General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of all Confederate forces in the
Transmississippi, ordered the bulk of the Confederate troops in Louisiana to
move north into Arkansas. The Texas Cavalry Division, which since the death of
Thomas Green at the Battle of Blair's Plantation (April 12, 1864) had been under
the command of Major General John A. Wharton, was among the units ordered
northward. Major's Cavalry Brigade, including the Arizona Scouts, went with
them. For the rest of 1864 the Arizona Scouts would serve in Arkansas, fighting
minor skirmishes which would claim the lives of its members, and otherwise
settling into the humdrum routine of picket duty and scouting between the lines.

Most,
if not all, of the Arizona men yearned to return to their homes in Arizona. But
this did not reduce the determination of the Arizonans to "stick it out to
the end" if that was the only way that Arizona might yet be freed. In
November of 1864, Captain James Henry Tevis (who by that time had recovered from
his wounds and been restored to command of the Arizona Scouts) voiced this
sentiment when he wrote to Dr. Lewis Owings. Owings, a former resident of
Mesilla who had been elected to the post of "Governor of Arizona" by a
Convention at Tucson in April 1860, was now acting as Confederate Arizonaís
unofficial "Governor-in-exile" in San Antonio. Tevis wrote: "Here
I am in this miserable State of Arkansas and praying every day that I may be
ordered somewhere else...We are all ready to fight four years longer even if the
government never gives us any clothing or pays us a dollar. I think we will be
the last men to give up."51 As it turned out, Tevis was not far
wrong.

As the
year 1865 dawned, prospects for the Confederacy looked bleak, and only got worse
as time wore on. Many Confederate soldiers in all theatres could see the
handwriting on the wall, and desertion rose to unprecedented levels (of 358,692
men on the official rolls of the Confederate Army at the close of the war, a
staggering 198,494 were absent from the ranks, leaving slightly over 160,000
actually in the field when the end came...55 percent of the entire army had
deserted their posts and gone home).52 In the Transmississippi,
mutinies occurred in many Texas units, including Wharton's Texas Cavalry
Division. However, Captain Tevis and the Arizona Scouts did not take part in
these mutinies, and were singled out for special praise by General Wharton for "remaining true to their colours" in a dispatch
dated February 24, 1865.53

Edmund Kirby Smith

The
collapse came in April 1865, with the surrender of General Robert E. Lee's Army
of Northern Virginia, then of General Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee,
signalling the end of effective Confederate resistance east of the Mississippi.
Other eastern Confederate armies, such as that of General Sam Jones in Florida
and of General Richard Taylor in Alabama, soon followed suit. By the time May
was in full bloom, Kirby Smith's Army of the Transmississippi was the only
significant Confederate fighting force still in existance.

Many
in the Transmississippi armies wanted to continue the struggle, including
Captain James Henry Tevis, who six weeks after Lee's surrender was still
exhorting his fellow Confederates to fight on to "victory or death, which
will be preferable to subjugation."54 But the majority of
Confederate soldiers could see that the end had come and simply wanted to go
home, and the Army of the Transmississippi melted away like mist before the
morning sun. General Edmund Kirby Smith, conceding at last the reality of
Confederate defeat, surrendered all Confederate forces west of the Mississippi
River on May 26, 1865, and shortly thereafter the Arizonans themselves had to
admit the futility of continuing the struggle and gathered for their final
muster at Hempstead, Texas.55

Of the
15 men who gathered that day, Captain Tevis would later recall, only three ever
returned to Arizona.56 Tevis himself was among these...he settled
near Bowie, Arizona in the 1880s and engaged in mining, ranching, and railroad
development after the war, and was eventually elected, in 1891, to the Arizona
Territorial Legislature.57 The rest of the survivors of what had once
been Company A, Baylor's Regiment of Arizona Rangers could not bring themselves
to live in an Arizona under Yankee rule. Even in defeat, these men remained
independent, defiant, and proud, qualities that in many ways define what it
means to to be an Arizonan even today. They were the Frontiersmen of the
Confederacy, and their achievements form a heritage of which Arizona may by
justly proud.

While
Baylorís original order creating the proposed Ranger Regiment is lost to
history, in late 1862 he wrote to General Paul O. Hebert, advising him that
Hunterís company had been organized "for a Regiment of Rangers," and
requesting their services "for immediate use," as he was at the time
raising a new Arizona Brigade and intended the Ranger Regiment to be part of it.
However, by that time the company had been assigned to Lt. Colonel Philemon T.
Herbertís Battalion of Arizona Cavalry, and assigned to the Sibley Brigade,
and so the Ranger Regiment would never become a reality. See L. Boyd Finch,
CONFEDERATE PATHWAY TO THE PACIFIC: MAJOR SHEROD HUNTER AND ARIZONA TERRITORY,
C.S.A., Tucson, Arizona: Arizona Historical Society, 1996, p. 171, hereafter
cited as Finch, PATHWAY.

Charles
Leland Sonnichsen, TUCSON: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AN AMERICAN CITY, Norman,
Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1982, p. 62, hereafter cited as
Sonnichsen.

8

Finch,
"Tucson," p. 16.

9

Finch,
PATHWAY, p. 171

10

An
example of this is found in Calvin P. Horn and William S. Wallace, ed.,
CONFEDERATE VICTORIES IN THE SOUTHWEST--PRELUDE TO DEFEAT.

Albuquerque,
NM: Horn and Wallace, 1961, pp 200-201, hereafter cited as Horn and Wallace.
This book is a collection of reprints of every document relating to the
campaigns in New Mexico and Arizona which originally appeared in the United
States War Departmentís massive 130-volume. OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE UNION AND
CONFEDERATE ARMIES IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. Other examples can be found in
Sherod Hunterís "Jacket" at the National Archives.

Odie
Faulk, ARIZONA: A SHORT HISTORY. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970,
p. 105. Hereafter cited as Faulk.

14

Affidavit
of Hiram Stephens, 5 October 1862, reprinted in Hayden Arizona Pioneer
Biographies Collection at Arizona State University. Accessible by internet at
the following URL...http://info.lib.asu.edu/archives/azbio/hunters.pdf.

John
Robert Baylor, orders to Captain Sherod Hunter, February 10, 1862, found in the
Sherod Hunter "Jacket" at the National Archives, COLLECTIONS OF
PRIVATE MILITARY PAPERS OF OFFICERS OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY.

18

These
aims, and others, were detailed in orders issued by Governor Baylor on February
9, 1862, reprinted in Finch, "Hunter," pp 202-203.

19

Sherod
Hunter, in a report to John R. Baylor dated April 5, 1862, states that the
command arrived in Tucson on February 28. The report is reprinted in Calvin P.
Horn and William S. Wallace, CONFEDERATE VICTORIES IN THE SOUTHWEST,
Albuquerque, New Mexico: Horn and Wallace, 1961, pp 200-201. However, on the day
prior he had prepared a loyalty oath for one J. W. Jones, which was signed at
Tucson on that date. So Company A had to have been in Tucson on February 27. See
Finch, "Hunter," p. 170.

A
complete itinerary and history of the campaign from the perspective of the Union
California Column can be found in Surgeon James M. McNulty, Acting Medical
Inspector of the California Column, report to General W. A. Hammond, Surgeon
General of the U.S. Army, October 1863, reprinted in Calvin P. Horn and William
S. Wallace, UNION ARMY OPERATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST, Albuquerque, New Mexico:
Horn and Wallace, 1961, pp. 81-90, hereafter cited as Horn and Wallace, UNION.

Surgeon
James M. McNulty, report to General W. A. Hammond, October 1863, reprinted in
Horn and Wallace, pp. 81-90.

35

An
excellent discussion of the production and issue of undyed uniforms from the
Huntsville Penitentiary and other sources in the Transmississippi West is found
in Fred Adolphus, "DRAB: The other Confederate Color," CONFEDERATE
VETERAN, September/October 1992, pp 36-41.

36

National
Archives, Compiled Miltary Service Records of Major Sherod Hunter, Second
Texas-Arizona Cavalry Regiment, and Captain Robert Swope, Herbertís Battalion,
Arizona Cavalry.

37

Alvin
M. Josephy, Jr., THE CIVIL WAR IN THE AMERICAN WEST, New York: Alfred A Knopf,
1991, pp 166-167, hereafter cited as Josephy.

38

Brigadier
General Henry Hopkins Sibley, report to Lt. General T. H. Holmes, 25 December
1862, found in United States War Department, THE WAR OF THE REBELLION: OFFICIAL
RECORDS OF THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE ARMIES, Series I, Volume 15, pp 910-911.
Hereafter cited as WAR OF THE REBELLION.

39

Josephy,
pp 169-170, 174; Finch, PATHWAY, pp. 180-181.

40

Compiled
Military Service Records, Captain Robert L. Swope, Herbertís Battalion,
Arizona Cavalry and lst Lieutenant James Henry Tevis, Herbertís Battalion,
Arizona Cavalry; Finch, PATHWAY, p. 181. A voucher for clothing for the company
which was found in Lieutenant Tevisís Compiled Service Record shows that as
late as June 1, 1863 (after Herbertís Battalion was broken up), Tevis was
still signing documents as "1st Lieutenant, Commanding Company."

41

Josephy,
pp. 170-172.

42

Letter
from Captain James Henry Tevis to the TUCSON DAILY CITIZEN, January 6, 1899; see
also Finch, PATHWAY, p. 181.

A
brief history of Saufleyís Texas Scouting Battalion, attached to Captain Tevisís
Compiled Military Service Record from the time period when the Arizona Scouts
were assigned as Company E of the battalion, states that the battalionís men
had been "detailed from Baylorís, Chisumís, Crumpís, and Madisonís
Regíts, Texas Cavalry." The "Baylorís Regiment" mentioned is
in fact Colonel George Wythe Baylorís Second Texas-Arizona Cavalry Regiment.
Since Sherod Hunter was a Major in this regiment, and since he was good friends
with Captain Tevis, it seems likely that he might have "pulled
strings" to get his friend Captain Tevis and the other Arizona men assigned
to the Second Texas-Arizona. But there is no direct proof of this.

46

Josephy,
pp 186-188.

47

Sifakis,
pp 44,48.

48

Compiled
Military Service Record, Captain James H. Tevis, Company E, Saufleyís Texas
Scouting Cavalry Battalion. See also the history of Saufleyís Scouting
Battalion which is attached to the Captain Tevisís Compiled Military Service
Record..

49

Colonel
James Duff, report to Major W. T. Mechling, Assistant Adjutant General, First
Division, Army of Texas, January 29, 1864, in WAR OF THE REBELLION, Series I,
Volume 34, Part II, p 927; Colonel James Duff, report to Captain E. P. Turner,
Assistant Adjutant General, February 27, 1864, in WAR OF THE REBELLION, Series
I, Volume 34, Part II, p. 1001.

50

Their
presence during this campaign is confirmed by Colonel George Wythe Baylor,
report to Captain Ogden, Assistant Adjutant General, in WAR OF THE REBELLION,
Series I, Volume 34, Part I, pp 616-625. The company is mentioned by name twice
in this report, with the capture of the Emma being recounted in on p.
621. The wounding of Captain Tevis is not mentioned in the report, but First
Lieutenant Smith is listed as being in command as of May 1, when the Emma
was captured. Rich Saathoff, in his excellent article on Company A, states that
Tevis was wounded at Mansfield, but the present author has been unable to find
independent documentation of that. Saathoffís article can be viewed on the
internet at: http://www.geocities.com/hardeeflag/arizonarangers/

Letter
from Captain James Henry Tevis to the TUCSON DAILY CITIZEN, January 6, 1899.

56

Finch,
"Arizona," p. 81.

57

Biography
of James Henry Tevis, Hayden Arizona Pioneer Biographies Collection at Arizona
State University. Accessible by internet at the following URL...http://info.lib.asu.edu/archives/azbio/tevisj.pdf.